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VMware just announced to remove vCenter Converter from the list of VMware product downloads this week. If we plan to P2V migration today, we may look for another approach. Veeam is a good approach for P2V migration. Today we will discuss how to physical-to-virtual migration (P2V) with Veeam VBR.

P2V Procedures
1. Install the Veeam Agent on the source host
2. Create the backup job
3. Restore the backup into the target host
4. Migrate to production

Demo Environment
Veeam Backup and Replication v11a
Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows 5.0.2
VMware vCenter Server Appliance 7.0 Update 2
VMware vSphere 7.0 Update 2
Microsoft Windows 2012 R2 (Physical host)

P2V Migration

Install Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows on source host.

Create the backup job of the source host.

Select "Entire computer", then click Next.

Select "Veeam backup repository", click Next.

In Backup Server, specific the FQDN/IP address of VBR. Select the backup repository, click Next.

Select "Enable application-aware processing" and "Enable file system indexing", click Next.

Click Apply to confirm the backup job.

Then it starts to backup the source host.

When the backup job is completed, go to Veeam console to restore the backup into the target host.

Select "Instant Recovery to VMware vSphere"

Specific the required information for the destination host. It will reserve machine BIOS UUID. Click Next.

We can also enable "Scan the restored machine for malware prior to performing the recovery". Click Next.

Click Finish to confirm the restore operation. It will mount the NFS datastore on the target host.

It register the VM into the target host. Then power on the VM automatically and install the VMware Tools in the guest OS.

When the VM is restored successfully, we can verify the settings in the guest OS.

If everything is fine in the guest OS, we can migrate this VM to production.

Back to Veeam console, select "Migrate to production".

Click Finish to confirm the migration.

When the migration is completed successfully, we need to uninstall the "Veeam Agent for Microsoft Windows" and unusual software.

In this demo, Veeam shows how to P2V Microsoft Windows into the VMware vSphere.

Appendix

When we P2V Microsoft Windows into the VMware vSphere with VMware vCenter Converter Standalone, it also deploy the Converter Agent into the source host.

Hello, We intend to do P2V using Veeam backup but the physical server has high capacity allotted. When we restore it to VMware, we want 80% of the storage to be reduced. How can this be achieved. Thank you!

I did it this way, but the hard disk size cannot be edited when the virtual machine is opened on the ESXi host
I did it this way, but the hard disk size cannot be edited when the virtual machine is opened on the ESXi host

@cong.xu  What is your ESXi edition?

@victorwu great article and simple explanation.

I did many migration using Veeam backup and restore.

We can use the agent managed by client side abd target VBR repository as explained in the great article.

 

Besides that, we can use Veeam agent managed by VBR to take the backup from the protected machines. Then restore to the target infrastructure (VMware in this case).

 

We can migrate Windows and Linux machines, all we have to check is the guest OS if applicable abd supported to install Veeam agent for (Windows, Linux,.. Etc) on it.

 

Here I have additional one question need verify. How can we deal with physical RDM and migrate it. 

What are the full steps to restore it? And how can we deal with physical RDM pointers to revert to initial state before migrating (make as is migration)?

 

Last thing to be mentioned that VMware vcenter Standalone 6.3 has been released on october 2022.

 

Thanks a lot

@JMeixner @Chris.Childerhose 

Thank you very much. It helps me a lot!

Not a problem. Let us know how it goes. 👍

 

I moved 3 server from p2v.

Windows 2012 Terminal Server
Windows 2016 Domain controller
Windows 2016 Server with SAP

Everything worked fine, but the dc only startet in safe mode, after a few hours of searching i removed the safe mode with “msconfig” and everything ist ok.

 

Thank you again @JMeixner @Chris.Childerhose !

 

What a god send - I have spent hours on this !  Thank you I can sleep now.

Another way to directly migrate P2V and V2V :)

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-v2v-converter

Yes this converter works very well too as an option outside of Veeam.

Can I perform a P2V migration of a domain controller (regardless of versions 2003 to 2022) without major problems? In specific documentation, I see many restrictions, precisely on the UUID that usually changes in a cloning or conversion. Does this tool allow you to maintain the UUID and other characteristics regarding a domain controller?

Is there any more current documentation, mentioning about this P2V process of AD servers???

Grateful.

Another way to directly migrate P2V and V2V :)

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-v2v-converter

Yes this converter works very well too as an option outside of Veeam.

Can I perform a P2V migration of a domain controller (regardless of versions 2003 to 2022) without major problems? In specific documentation, I see many restrictions, precisely on the UUID that usually changes in a cloning or conversion. Does this tool allow you to maintain the UUID and other characteristics regarding a domain controller?

Is there any more current documentation, mentioning about this P2V process of AD servers???

Grateful.

You should be able to use that one or VMware has a specific converter that will also do AD servers and can be found here along with documentation - vCenter Converter: P2V Virtual Machine Converter | VMware

Another way to directly migrate P2V and V2V :)

https://www.starwindsoftware.com/starwind-v2v-converter

Yes this converter works very well too as an option outside of Veeam.

Can I perform a P2V migration of a domain controller (regardless of versions 2003 to 2022) without major problems? In specific documentation, I see many restrictions, precisely on the UUID that usually changes in a cloning or conversion. Does this tool allow you to maintain the UUID and other characteristics regarding a domain controller?

Is there any more current documentation, mentioning about this P2V process of AD servers???

Grateful.

You should be able to use that one or VMware has a specific converter that will also do AD servers and can be found here along with documentation - vCenter Converter: P2V Virtual Machine Converter | VMware

I P2V the AD by using VMware vCenter Converter in many times, 99% is successful.

is there any way to influence the destination data store volume while restoring? 

is there any way to influence the destination data store volume while restoring? 

You mean an entire VM restore or VMDK restore?  If so during the restore wizard at this page select new location option.

 

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